My main problem: unsure if driver is installed properlyI am not certain what the correct driver source / installation technique for this chipset is. Can anyone help me with this knowledge?

Earlier in my trial/error, I followed this advice on the Ubuntu knowledge base. Did I make a mistake following this advice, since it is for a device with a different chipset? If so, please let me know how to undo this change.

Driver doesn't support my Kernel version?I am lead to believe that this is the appropriate driver for the 0b05:17ab device. However, the version 3.4.4_4749 driver listed on that page only lists support for “Linux Kernel 2.6.18~2.6.38 and Kernel 3.0.8”. Could this be the problem? My Mint 13 installation uses Linux Kernel 3.2.0-23-generic.Linux only detects wireless occasionallyAt first, it seemed that Linux was not recognising the USB device as a wireless network adaptor at all. Then I followed this solution and rebooted my computer. Coincidentally or not, this time the blue light appeared on my USB device, and Linux Mint listed 'Wireless' as an option in my 'Network Settings' window. It even detected the household wi-fi network which I was hoping to connect to!

Unfortunately, despite me definitely entering the correct username and password (and mirroring the network settings from the Ubuntu 11.04 machine which I am writing this forum post via), I was not able to connect to this network.

Since then, I have shut down/restarted my Mint 13 machine about12 times, and the blue light has only appeared on my USB wireless adaptor on 3 of those boots.

Thanks in advance for your help.

n.b. to solution-givers: I can't get any network connectivity through the affected Mint 13 computer to access updates from the repositories (wireless is my only internet option in this house...). However, I can use USBs to copy and paste files/Terminal commands onto the PC.

I see you installed a driver with ndiswrapper. You should not need to do this since there is a native Linux driver available. Please remove the Windows driver from Windows Wireless Drivers, reboot, and post the output of:

There is a major bug in that driver that was just found. It will be some timebefore the fix percolates through the system. If you cannot wait, you will needto patch the kernel sources and build your own kernel. If that is what you wantto do, let me know.[/color]

Thanks. Here is the result of lsusb -v (I have only copied/pasted the output relevant to the wireless USB device - let me know if you'd like the full output, including my other USB devices such as mouse, graphics tablet).

After a reboot, nothing is working differently with regards to the network card detecting/connecting to networks.

Could someone please step me through the driver download/installation process for this Realtek RTL8192CU driver. Just in case there is a lingering problem from when I tried to do this myself. I wasn't 100% confident in my installation.

If I cannot get this working in another 2-3 days, I may very well take caf4926's suggestion and eBay the ASUS N13 network adaptor and buy a new one which works Out of the Box. What is the best resource for researching N300 compatible (i.e. 300Mbps) USB network adaptors? The Linux Mint Community Hardware database?

Anyway, let's try to get this device working before we go and spend $ on new equipment

Nothing seems to have changed since doing this. The wireless hasn't miraculously started working.

Interestingly, despite me shutting down/restarting my computer 6 times, the computer only recognised the USB network adaptor 1 of those time. (On all other attempts, the blue light was not on, and 'wireless' was not a networking option available to me).

If you think that is the solution, please post the steps and I can try it on my machine.

I may be able to temporarily move my computer (it is a desktop) to close to my router and plug in via cat-5 cable, to download any necessary files. Or let me know if there is a way to put the files on my desktop via a USB thumbdrive.

aneurysm1985 wrote:If you think that is the solution, please post the steps and I can try it on my machine.

I may be able to temporarily move my computer (it is a desktop) to close to my router and plug in via cat-5 cable, to download any necessary files. Or let me know if there is a way to put the files on my desktop via a USB thumbdrive.

You would need to be wired.

I think you should start a new thread to ask how to let the kernel upgrade so as to be able to use compat-wireless. I'm not 100% clear on the exact steps